Character study

Sam Elliott has been around since the dawn of time (well, the dawn
of my time, which dates from roughly the late sixties, in
practical terms. I was sort of subliminally aware of him when he
was on Mission Impossible, but of course I was so
hopelessly preoccupied with Leonard Nimoy (still grieving over the
loss of Star Trek, which hadn't yet gone into syndication)
that I didn't really have any attention free for anybody else.

Then there was the fact that he was just too good-looking, which I
found strangely off-putting.

But then I saw Fatal Beauty in 1987 because, of course, I
am a devoted Whoopi Goldberg fan. And Elliott suddenly riveted my
attention, purely aside from the fact that he'd turned gorgeous in
a very elemental way. A friend of mine contends that men don't get
really interesting until they're into their forties, and I'm
inclined to agree with her. It's like they finally move in and
unpack, somehow. It didn't hurt that his chemistry with Whoopi
Goldberg is probably the best I've seen her play against. (I'd
love to see them do another movie together)

But in addition, there was something strangely familiar about him
which I still haven't managed to put my finger on. A big piece of
it turned up when I happened to be leafing through my art from
Minneapolis, and ran across my painting of a
wizard. The resemblance was rather
spooky (well, okau, it is in my mind, okay?), as if I'd somehow
anticipated how Elliott would look ten years from the last time I'd
seen him.

original: 5.5"x8", ball-point pen, 1988

How he qualifies as someone "in my head" is that one of the first
things I tend to do when I get fascinated with an actor is start
spinning characters for him to play. Sometimes it takes (as with
George Carlin and
Cas,
and sometimes it doesn't. Sad to say, this one didn't.
But I actually got a few good drawings out of the deal. I was
working on generally improving my technique, and I've found it's
much easier to put in the hours necessary to complete a quality
drawing if you're working on a subject you enjoy looking at.